Winter

Today is the first day of winter here in central Ohio, and winter has REALLY arrived. We’ve been experiencing snow driven by wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour and after a very mild late fall it is really winter outside today!

The image above is of the Upper Falls Cascade at the beginning of Old Man’s Cave gorge in Hocking Hills State Park. Old Man’s Creeks flows over the three cascades you see here just before Upper Falls. If you’ve read my blog before, you know that Hocking Hills State Park in southeastern Ohio is one of my favorite photography destinations. A foot bridge crosses directly over Upper Falls and this view is just on the other side of the bridge. The snow and ice contrast nicely with the green Hemlock trees forming a nice frame for this shot. I used a polarizing filter to reduce the reflections on the water and enhance the colors.

Old Man’s Cave gorge is a great place to photograph at any time of the year, and I think it’s an especially beautiful place in the winter time. All along its ½ mile length icicles form everywhere offering an almost unlimited number of compositions. The image below is one such example.

Icicles in Old Man’s Cave Gorge – Click image to enlarge

If you do visit Old Man’s Cave gorge in the winter, be prepared for the cold and use extreme caution when the gorge is icy. On my very first winter photo trip to the gorge, I fell before I made it down into the gorge….my feet went out from underneath me without warning, the camera and tripod flew up into the air, and I hit the ground before I knew what happened. Fortunately, I didn’t break any bones and even though the camera hit the ground pretty hard it wasn’t damaged at all. I was lucky and had a lot of fun photographing the rest of the day.